Scripture Collective Series

For twenty-five years, the Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar has produced a steady stream of influential, global, diverse, ecumenical and world-class research and publications that have impacted a generation of scholars now in mid-career, teaching or ministering at various universities, seminaries, divinity schools, or churches around the globe. The volumes of the seminar have resourced countless classrooms and have been cited thousands of times in scholarly research and in pulpits and Bible studies worldwide.

Below you will find information and links for the original 8-volume series, as well as for the brand volume in our new Scripture Collective Series with Zondervan Academic: The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar: Retrospect and Prospect.

Scripture Collective: New Series

Scripture Collective Series Vol. 2: Divine Action in Hebrews and the Ongoing Priesthood of Jesus

Recent years have seen renewed interest in divine action, but much of the literature tends to focus on the science-theology discussion. Resulting from multi-year work of the Scripture and Doctrine Seminar, part of KLC’s Scripture Collective, this book attends to the portrayal of divine action in one major biblical text, namely Hebrews. In the New Testament, Hebrews is on par with Romans in terms of importance but has too often been overlooked. Contributors to this volume explore the many different ways in which divine action is foregrounded and portrayed in Hebrews. As its name indicates, Hebrews overflows with Old Testament intertextuality, which also makes it a fertile ground for analysis of divine action stretching back into the Old Testament and opening out into different parts of the NT. The essays in this volume:

rigorously work the interface of theology and exegesis, all related to Hebrews;
offer an overview of the current state of discussion of divine action and the importance of exploring divine action in specific biblical texts, with special reference to William Abraham’s recent 4 volume work with OUP;
provide an overview of the reception history of Hebrews in theologies of divine action;
explore how this has this played out in historical theology and what a retrieval of Hebrews for a theology of divine action might mean today;
explore the relationship between the doctrine of God and divine action in Hebrews, including an engagement with classical theism;
provocatively explore divine action in the OT, creation, and eschatology in Hebrews;
explore the major theme in Hebrews of divine action through the ongoing priesthood of Jesus as portrayed in Hebrews;
relate this all to preaching Hebrews today and to spiritual formation.

The book’s conclusion reflects on the primary action of God speaking in Hebrews.

Scripture Collective Series Vol. 1: The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar, 25th Anniversary: Retrospect and Prospect

Being part of this community over the years, I have had the opportunity to cultivate distinctly Christian practices in scholarship such as pursuing learning and creating as prayer, praise, confession, and offering. This vision and these practices allow scholarship to be just as edifying as it is rigorous, which is something that Christian scholars can and should offer a fragmented world.

Over the past twenty-five years, the SAHS community under the leadership of Craig Bartholomew and others has contributed to the kingdom of God in immeasurable ways. I have personally benefited greatly through my friendships and scholarly interaction with the community, and I look forward to what God has to bring to our common future.

Twenty-five years and many Seminar meetings later, there is now a vibrant academic, interdisciplinary, and Christian community that has broken down the dividing wall of disciplinary hostility in order to pursue together the task of reading the Bible theologically.

Along with the joy of the friends that I have made through the SAHS, these meetings have been one of the most encouraging features of belonging to this group and doing theology together as believers, disciples, and worshippers of the living God of the Bible.

In celebration of the 25th year of the seminar (1997-2022), this compendium reflects on its work and impact. It offers new essays that chart the value of the seminar for biblical interpretation and the needs of biblical interpretation in the future, and includes stories from the formative SAHS community. This volume distills the work of the seminar for a new generation of students, opening to them a gateway to the community and to the resources developed over the past two decades.

Tightly organized, carefully arranged and cross-referenced, this volume:

Highlights the work of a significant movement in biblical interpretation in the academy
Charts a path of biblical interpretation from the past to the future
Helps readers understand the philosophical and theological commitments that undergird biblical interpretation
Helps readers construct a theological hermeneutics that yields a deeper, richer reading of Scripture
Introduces readers to stories of the seminar from scholars and ministers impacted by it

This celebratory volume not only gives a unique perspective on the architecture of biblical interpretation in the first quarter of the twenty-first century, but it is offered in hope of preparing fertile soil for the next generation of women and men to cultivate biblical interpretation for years to come.

The volume features essays by Craig Bartholomew, David Beldman, Amber L. Bowen, Susan Bubbers, Jean-Louis Chrétien, Havilah Dharamraj, Bo Lim, Murray Rae, J. Aaron Simmons, Anthony Thiselton, and John Wyatt.

Scripture Collective: Original Series

The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar Vol. 1: Renewing Biblical Interpretation

There are few things more urgent for Christian thought in the churches and in universities and seminaries than to produce lively, intelligent and imaginative biblical interpretation. The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar is facing the deepest issues involved in doing this. It does not run away from complexity or controversy. But above all it is concerned to do justice to the extraordinary, generative richness of the Bible and to let it be genuinely ‘habitable’ today. This book will illuminate, inspire and provoke anyone who wants to learn from some of the best in the field how to respond to the Bible in the aftermath of modern critiques and crises.

This book brings together some of the key players in the present discussions of how to use the Bible, not simply to talk about how difficult it all is but to point new and creative ways forward. A refreshing and wide-ranging discussion that will help us all both to think clearly and to read—and teach! more responsibly.

Church History is in large measure the history of biblical interpretation. And almost all contemporary cultural and intellectual movements eventually show up in biblical interpretation as well. Both modernity and modern biblical studies are showing signs of ageing, and it is agreed that the critical approach that has dominated the discussion for the last two hundred or so years has obscured the Bible’s role as the Church’s authoritative Scripture. All the more reason to be grateful, then, that there is now an academic seminar devoted to the project of recovering a theological dimension to the interpretation of Scripture. This first volume holds out the hope that certain hermeneutical developments will lead not only to the renewal of biblical interpretation, but to the renewal of the Church itself.

Renewing Biblical Interpretation is the first of eight volumes from the Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar. This annual gathering of Christian scholars from various disciplines was established in 1998 and aims to re-assess the discipline of biblical studies from the foundation up and forge creative new ways for re-opening the Bible in our cultures. Including a retrospective on the consultation by Walter Brueggemann, the contributors to Renewing Biblical Interpretation consider three elements in approaching the Bible―the historical, the literary and the theological―and the underlying philosophical issues that shape the way we think about literature and history.

The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar Vol. 2: After Pentecost: Language and Biblical Interpretation

The scholars who together have produced this remarkable volume—and the projected series of which this volume is a part—are prepared to deal patiently and honestly with the most elemental theological issues. The title, after Pentecost, alludes to the problem and prospect of language as the condition of theological truth, and the authors are fully conversant with the most important theoretical issues concerning language. They mobilize that vast learning for the tasks of exegesis and theological adjudication. This is a serious book, a genre in which there are few current representatives. The book will bear careful, patient study. It cannot be “read,” but must be studied. The treatment of theological language as a theological issue offered here matches the gravity of the topic itself. Immense learning is mobilized in the service of serious critical reflection on behalf of the church as the church faces an entirely new situation with the demise of modernist rationality and its accompanying positivism.

This is an excellent collection on a topic for which interdisciplinary conversation between biblical scholars, theologians and philosophers is vital. These essays deserve to be widely read and to draw many more of us into that conversation.

Central to the theological task is the question as to how human language functions and refers within the context of Christian revelation. This volume contains an impressive series of essays and responses by leading contempo- rary philosophers, theologians and biblical scholars brought together to con- sider the relationship between biblical, exegetical and theological discourse. Their work is characterized by a shared concern to articulate the manner in which God may and does speak in and through human speech. This significant contribution to the debate will prove invaluable to anyone committed to intellectual engagement with these key issues.

“There is always some view of language built into biblical interpretation. If we are to read Scripture to hear God’s address it is vital that we attend to current debates about language and become critically conscious in this respect.” – Craig Bartholomew.

After Pentecost is the second volume from the Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar. This annual gathering of Christian scholars from various disciplines was established in 1998 and aims to reassess the discipline of biblical studies from the foundations up and forge creative new ways for reopening the Bible in our cultures. The Seminar was aware from the outset that any renewal of biblical interpretation would have to attend to the issue of language. In this rich and creative volume the importance of linguistic issues for biblical interpretation is analyzed, the challenge of postmodernism is explored, and some of the most creative recent developments in philosophy and theology of language are assessed and updated for biblical interpretation.

The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar Vol. 3: A Royal Priesthood? A Dialogue with Oliver O'Donovan

I found this collection of essays on O’Donovan’s The Desire of the Nations both extraordinarily illuminating and a model of intellectual engagement. The critics engage O’Donovan respectfully but firmly; they focus on the important issues, and dig deep. And O’Donovan responds to each essay incisively and winsomely. I learned a great deal, and will be returning to learn more. Unlike most other collections, the whole is a great deal more than the sum of the parts. First-rate!

There can be no doubt that Oliver O’Donovan’s The Desire of the Nations is one of the most considerable pieces of Christian moral theology of the last half century, already proving itself a focus of wide and intensive debate. Not the least aspect of its significance is the attentiveness of its biblical exegesis. The responses in this volume, with O’Donovan’s patient and measured replies, not only take the discussion to a new level of seriousness, but exhibit the kind of scrupulous care, charity and commitment to truth which ought to characterise all theological debate. Studied alongside The Desire of the Nations, this is a collection to which scholars in theology, ethics, biblical studies and political theory will return time and again with profit.

I have no hesitation in commending these essays, and especially Professor Oliver O’Donovan’s dialogue with them, most warmly and without reserve. It would be difficult to exaggerate their creativity, importance, and timeliness. The project of exploring biblical interpretation in relation to ethics and political theology by means of a focussed dialogue with O’Donovan’s writings is inspired, and eminently successful. The essays reflect the thinking of seventeen distinguished scholars who bring together hermeneutics, Christian theology, history of ideas, ethics, and political theology with rigour and relevance. O’Donovan’s responses are incisive, judicious, informative, elegant, and, in short, masterly. This volume may well signal a constructive agenda for biblical interpretation over the next ten years. I cannot speak too highly of it.

“Since September 11, 2001, we are intensely aware of the need for political wisdom. Can Scripture help us in this respect? Yes, but not simplistically. In an exhilarating dialogue with Oliver O’Donovan, a team of international scholars look in detail in this book at biblical interpretation as we make the journey from what God said to Abraham, as it were, to how to respond to the political challenges of today. Such exploration is essential if the church is to become “a royal priesthood” today.” – Craig Bartholomew

A Royal Priesthood? is the third volume from the Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar. This annual gathering of Christian scholars from various disciplines was established in 1998 and aims to reassess the discipline of biblical studies from the foundations up and forge creative new ways for reopening the Bible in our cultures. Any attempt to open the Book in new and fresh ways for our cultures at the start of the third millennium must explore how to read the Bible ethically and politically. This volume looks at the obstacles to such a process and in dialogue with Oliver O’Donovan’s creative work in this regard, looks in detail at how to read different parts of the Bible for ethics and politics. A unique element of the book is Oliver O’Donovan’s 14 responses to individual chapters.

The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar Vol. 4: "Behind" the Text: History and Biblical Interpretation

Few topics are more central to the task of biblical interpretation than history, and few books open up the subject in so illuminating and thought-provoking a manner as this splendid collection of essays and responses.

. . . breaks new ground in its interdisciplinary examination of the methodology, presuppositions, practices and purposes of biblical hermeneutics, with a special emphasis on the relation of faith and history.

This volume holds great promise for the full-fledged academic recovery of the Bible as Scripture. It embodies an unusual combination of world-class scholarship, historic Christian orthodoxy, bold challenges to conventional wisdom, and the launching of fresh new ideas.

The essays presented here respect the need and fruitfulness of a critical historiography while beginning the much-needed process of correcting the philosophical tenets underlying much modern and postmodern biblical research. The result is a book that mediates a faith understanding, both theoretical and practical, of how to read the Bible authentically as a Christian today.

Christianity believes in a God who acts in history. The Bible tells us the story of God’s actions in Israel, culminating in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth and the spreading of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome. The issue of history is thus unavoidable when it comes to reading the Bible Volume 4 of the Scripture and Hermeneutics Series looks at how history has dominated biblical studies under the guise of historical criticism. This book explores ways in which different views of history influence interpretation. It considers the implications of a theology of history for biblical exegesis, and in several case studies it relates these insights to particular texts. “Behind” the Text examines the correlation between history and the Bible. For the scholar, student, and informed reader of the Bible, this volume highlights the importance of history for biblical interpretation, and looks at how history has and should influence interpretation.

The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar Vol. 5: Out of Egypt: Biblical Theology and Biblical Interpretation

Biblical theology attempts to explore the theological coherence of the canonical witnesses; no serious Christian theology can overlook this issue. The essays in the present volume illustrate the complexity and richness of the conversation that results from attentive consideration of the question. In a time when some voices are calling for a moratorium on biblical theology or pronouncing its concerns obsolete, this collection of meaty essays demonstrates the continuing vitality and necessity of the enterprise.

This volume on biblical theology jumps into the fray and poses the right kind of questions. It does not offer a single way forward. Several of the essays are quite fresh and provocative, breaking new ground (Bray, Reno); others set out the issues with clarity and grace (Bartholomew); others offer programmatic analysis (Webster, Bauckham); others offer a fresh angle of view (Chapman, Martin). The success of this series is in facing the challenge of disarray in biblical studies head-on and then modelling a variety of approaches to stimulate our reflection.

Ranging widely across the latest theory and up-to-date praxis of biblical theology, this volume makes a significant contribution to the gathering renewal of that discipline on both sides of the Atlantic. With an ecumenical, star-studded team of experts in the Old and New Testaments as well as in Patristics and Christian doctrine, Out of Egypt is more than a sum of its parts: from various theoretical and practical perspectives, it demonstrates both the pedigree and the intellectual vitality of biblical theology. In so doing, this book gives continued hope for an exodus of Christian biblical interpretation from its long slavery to diverse late-modern taskmasters of historicist and ideologically revisionist deconstruction.

Biblical theology is crucial if we are to grasp the whole of the Bible and to do so on its own terms. In Out of Egypt, the fifth volume of the Scripture and Hermeneutics Series, the authors turn their attention to biblical theology and its importance for biblical interpretation.

The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar Vol. 6: Reading Luke: Interpretation, Reflection, Formation

The essays in this collection advance the theological conversation with the gospel of Luke by taking narrative seriously as the means by which Luke made meaning. The essayists seek to move forward in different ways, and in fact the several examples of give-and-take within the collection are among its attractive features. The exchange of views on the use of the third gospel in the second century represents literary sleuthing of the best sort. What all the contributors agree on is that contemporary making-meaning in conversation with this gospel demands not going behind the text in search of history, but remaining engaged with the story as it was crafted by Luke.

A magnificent achievement. So many chapters are mini-masterpieces, and the whole work enhances brilliantly our grasp of the interpretation and reception of the gospel of Luke and Acts.

This is a very impressive addition to the increasingly influential series, Scripture and Hermeneutics. The sixteen high quality essays are a major contribution to scholarship on Luke-Acts. They offer fresh perspectives, especially on issues of method and interpretation. The essays are accessible to a wide readership, yet they are full of insights which will stimulate further reflection and research.

A rich and comprehensive volume―essential reading for all those interested in how to read Luke as relevant for today. In this sixth volume, the Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar brings its past six years of work on biblical hermeneutics to bear on the gospel according to Luke. In his introduction, Anthony Thiselton, world authority on biblical hermeneutics, sets the context for a wider ranging exploration of how to read Luke for God’s address today. Traditional and more contemporary approaches are brought into dialogue with each other as several top Lukan scholars reflect on how best to read Luke as Scripture. Topics covered include the purpose of Luke-Acts, biblical theology and Luke, narrative and Luke, reception history and Luke, the parables in Luke, a missional reading of Luke, and theological interpretation of Luke. Since prayer is a major theme in Luke, this volume explores not only the role of prayer in Luke, but also the relationship between prayer and exegesis.

The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar Vol. 7: Canon and Biblical Interpretation

Opinions differ as to whether “canonical interpretation” is a step forward or a step backward in the study of biblical hermeneutics, or alternatively whether it is something too multifarious to have a single opinion on. Whatever one’s view, this is an extraordinarily fruitful and important volume. It lays out the importance of canonical interpretation, as seen by key exponents and it interacts in scholarly and attentive fashion, not to say critical and trenchant fashion, with people who look at questions about the canon from very different perspectives.

A “canonical approach,” indebted to the work of Brevard Childs, is at the cutting edge of current work on biblical interpretation in relation to Christian life and thought. This collection clarifies the nature of a canonical approach, explores its interpretative potential, and exposes common misunderstandings. It should be a landmark in the debate.

Canon has certainly been one of the hot issues in biblical interpretation in the last several years, and this volume adds seriously to the discussion. Although not a book focused on Brevard Childs, Childs himself makes a contribution and stands at the center of the discussion from all perspectives. Some of the essays are very wide- ranging, while others are focused on particular portions of Scripture—the Torah, prophets, psalms, and writings. Virtually all of the essays have something significant to offer to the range of issues that are raised by canonical interpretation, especially its theological dimensions and hermeneutical dimensions. This would be an excellent textbook for a course in canonical interpretation.

Canon and Biblical Interpretation is both a piece of sound biblical scholarship and true faith witness. It reveals new and promising trends of ecumenical dialogue around interpreting Scripture within the Church and deeply rooted in Life Communities.

Drawing on a broad array of contributors, volume seven of the Scripture and Hermeneutics Series assesses the current state of canonical interpretation and uses that as a starting point for exploring ingredients in theological interpretation of the Bible today. Canon and Biblical Interpretation begins with a masterful examination of the canonical approach and the various criticisms that have been leveled against it. Additional chapters look at canonical interpretation in relation to different parts of the Bible, such as the Pentateuch, the Wisdom books, the Psalms, and the Gospels. Articles address such issues as canonical authority and the controversial relationship between canonical interpretation and general hermeneutics. A unique chapter explores the relationship between academic exegesis and lectio divina.

The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar Vol. 8: The Bible and the University

This important book reclaims the Bible from its Babylonian captivity to narrow academic standards and by doing so serves the university by restoring its heart; that is, any knowledge worth pursuing is the knowledge of God.

An informed provocation to rethinking the ways in which our understanding of the Bible as the Book of the Church equips the Church to better serve the world, including the important part of the world that is the university.

From first (David Jeffrey’s characteristically lucid introduction) to last (Roger Lundin’s masterful history of the Bible in American literature), and at all points in between, this superb collection provides first-rate engagement with a complex, but also supremely important subject. Of course, not every reader will agree with every point made by the book’s authors in analyzing contemporary intellectual life or spotlighting the best ways of putting the Bible to use in the academy. But as the final volume in a very important series, this book offers an unusually compelling wealth of information, assessment, encouragement, and admonition both for a better understanding of Scripture and for its deployment in the contemporary world.

In this final volume of the Scripture and Hermeneutic Series, a group of distinguished scholars have sought to understand the role of the Bible in relation to the disciplines in a fresh way. Offered in a spirit of humility and experimentally, the essays here consider the historic role of the Bible in the university, the status of theological reflection regarding Scripture among the disciplines today, the special role of Scripture in the development of law, the humanities and social sciences, and finally, the way the Bible speaks to issues of academic freedom, intellectual tolerance, and religious liberty.

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